Recalled (Death Escorts #1)(6)
Author: Cambria Hebert

When I turned from the mirror, Mr. Burns frowned. “Well, I guess as long as you do the job it doesn’t matter what you look like.”

Then he held out a wad of cash and I reached for it, shoving it in my pocket. “Here’s your credit card. The bill will come to me. Don’t spend more than twenty thousand a month.”

“Twenty thousand,” I said, practically choking on the number.

“Yes, well, I know it isn’t much, but this is your first job. You aren’t officially an Escort yet. Once it’s official, your limit will increase.”

He must’ve thought I was offended by the amount. I tried not to outwardly react—I wasn’t offended; I was shocked. I’d never seen this much money in my entire almost eighteen years! Killing paid well.

I reached out and took the credit card, glancing down at the name. “I have a new name, too?”

“Of course.”

I glanced at the name again and wanted to roll my eyes. Dexter Allen Roth. It might as well just said Dork of the Century. I glanced back at Mr. Burns. “Just call me Dex.”

Mr. Burns inclined his head. “You can call me G.R.”

So I got saddled with Dexter and he got a cool name like G.R.? I shoved the credit card in my pocket and grabbed up the keys. “Are these to my new car?”

“Yes. I will take you to it shortly. There is also the key to your new apartment. The GPS in your vehicle will take you to its location.”

“Sweet.” I palmed the keys and glanced back up, my eyes falling on my body—the one still hanging in the closet. I felt I was betraying it somehow. “What about my body?” I asked.

“Once you become an official Death Escort, you can have it back if you like. The one you wear now will go back in the closet.”

“About that… You said I couldn’t have my original body because the Target might recognize me. Who’s the Target?”

“The night you died, you pushed someone out of the way of the bus that crushed you. A girl.”

“Yeah, so?”

“She is your Target.”

I felt the denial inside me, but just as quickly, it was gone. Why not her? The Target had to be someone, and at least this girl wasn’t a friend.

“She won’t know who I am,” I said, seeing no reason for the new body and the new name. This girl saw me for all of five seconds before I was smashed by a bus. But she really looked at you, a voice inside me whispered. That wasn’t something I would forget because few people in my life have ever looked at me and really saw me.

Still, it didn’t mean anything. She probably knew I was stealing from her and was about to call me out.

“Don’t think your death went unnoticed,” Mr. Burns said. I know he told me his name, but in my head he would forever be Mr. Burns. “Remember, in the business of Escorting, no detail is too small.”

“Right.” I agreed.

“Once the Target is dead, you will call me.” He reached into the still-open drawer and pulled out an iPhone and slid it across the table. “My number is programmed in. I will arrive and take things from there. You have two months to complete the task.”

The task of killing someone.

Chapter Six

“Morgue – A place in which the bodies of persons found dead are kept until identified and claimed or until arrangements for burial have been made.”

Piper

Hospitals always smelled like harsh cleaning supplies with a slight hint of stale air. I wondered if after a few years of working here you’d get used to the smell. Maybe someday I’d be able to find out. If I ever finished college, that is.

I wound down the long, white, surprisingly empty corridor. Although, I guess given where I headed, the empty hallway shouldn’t be a surprise.

No one wanted to hang out by the morgue.

When I called the hospital this morning, no one would tell me anything. I wasn’t really surprised, but I wasn’t ready to give up, either. I had to know more about the man who died for me. I wanted to at least know his name.

I paused outside the wide swinging doors that led to the morgue before taking a deep breath and pushing through them. Just ahead and on the left was a small station with one nurse behind a Plexiglas wall with a small cut out circle for people to talk through.

It was quiet in here. There was also a sort of stillness in the air, like the dead bodies close by somehow stole some of the life right out of the air. I shivered and pulled the sweater I wore closer around me.

The nurse looked up from her desk and leaned close to the circle. “Can I help you?”

I nodded and stepped forward. “Yes, I was hoping you could tell me some information about a body that was brought in last night?”

“Name of the deceased?” she asked.

“I don’t know his name; that’s what I wanted to know.”

The nurse looked closer at me. “Are you a family member or next of kin?”

I sighed. “No.”

“I’m sorry we can’t give out any information,” she began to say, but I held up my hand and she paused.

“Look, I know the rules. I called this morning. But, please, that man… that man in there… he died for me. He pushed me out of the way of a bus and got hit instead. All I want is to know his name, to know something about the man that saved my life.”

She thought about what I said for long moments, then held up a finger. “Wait here.” And she disappeared from the office and went down the hall.

I stared at the chairs in the waiting room with distaste, refusing to sit down. I wondered how many people sat in them, waiting to identify a body or to collect the personal belongings of someone they would never see again.

I thought about the dead bodies lying a few doors down, draped in white sheets, closed up in little drawers, waiting for someone to claim them or put them to rest. This had to be one of the saddest places on earth.

I heard the nurse’s soft-soled shoes coming back down the hall and I turned toward the door of the office. Instead of her, a man in a white lab coat appeared and headed toward me. “Miss? You’re here about the body?”

“Yes. Please tell me his name.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

I let out a frustrated sound. “Yes, you can!”

“No. I don’t know his name. He had no ID on him when he was brought in.”

“How can that be?” I asked, thinking maybe the reason the police officers at the scene wouldn’t tell me was because they hadn’t known either.